China – Finland Strategic ICT Alliance

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Activities Overview in Sino-Finnish Senior Services and Smart Home cooperation in the April-June 2014 Period

Jul 07 2014

During the April – June 2014 period several events and meetings related to Senior Services and Smart Home areas, involving technology development, piloting and education & training services, have been organised or joined by the ICT Alliance and DIGILE.

Elderly care is an important area for innovative solutions and business creation. ICT Alliance was invited to discuss cooperation in elderly care services and concrete pilot opportunities with the representatives of Beijing Fengtai Economic and Information Technology Commission and the district management. Fengtai district has invested in information technology and created a roadmap towards “a wisdom district” but its population is aging fast. By the end of 2013, the elderly population accounted for as much as 24 percent of the whole registered district population. The large population base, the continuous growth and the large amount of elderly population are three main features of this aging district. Possible solutions are studied in elderly care pilots combining big data and mobile health solutions. It was agreed to continue discussions on how to implement ICT cooperation between Finland and China by providing best solutions on integrating ICT facilities into smart and innovative senior housing and management, as well as integrating worldwide most advanced technologies and experiences into the on-going projects in senior care services. This will provide opportunities for new business development via ICT Alliance cooperation. Examples include the already launched Business Ecosystems, like Elderly Care and Active Life, ECAL, as well as new ones focusing e.g. on Smart Home or on home based diagnostics.

– On 8-9 April and 14-17 April meetings were held in Shanghai, including meetings with BesTV/SMG, Tekes, Tongji University and Aalto University and VTT experts and the Sino-Finnish Center team.

– On 16 April it was announced that Mr. Matti Hämäläinen, DIGILE / ICT Alliance and Aalto, has been appointed as a National High-end Foreign Expert (under the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs Program) at Tongji University to act as the Director of a new Joint Lab on Intelligent Services Embedded in Everyday Life for the Wellbeing of Elderly (ISEEL).

– On 4-7 May Minister of Social Affairs and Health Paula Risikko visited China with more than 40 Finnish health care companies

– On 15 May the kick-off meeting of the first “Home-as-a-Service Platfrom” project was held at Urban Mill, Aalto, in Espoo.

– On 10 June China-Finland ICT Alliance, BlueAngel HongYe Investment (Group), Tekes, Finpro and China’s National Industry Alliance of Smart City Technology Innovation organised a workshop on smart agriculture, smart city and smart living services in Beijing. A meeting with China Aging Development Foundation, CADF, Chairman Mr. Li Baoku, was organised for planning of cooperation activities in ageing society services

– On 12 and 14 June a meeting with ICT Alliance and Shenzen Medical Education Center (SMEC) had a meeting on establishing a long term collaboration between China and Finland in senior care and integrated care training and services, and in particular the administration of senior care services that is about to emerge as an industry in China.

China-Finland ICT Alliance: Newsletter: January-March 2014

Apr 16 2014

China-Finland ICT Alliance: Newsletter: January-March 2014 435.43 KB

Click to download China -Finland ICT Alliance January - March 2014 Update.pdf

China-Finland ICT Alliance Finnish Partners Workshop

A workshop with the Finnish partners of China-Finland ICT Alliance was held in Espoo on 11 February 2014. The key target was to share current accomplishments of each project, and plan cooperation activities and actions in 2014. In addition to the Phase II project representatives, also invited experts from universities, companies and funding organisations were attending the workshop to discuss new activities in 5G and future networks and other areas such as sensing, traffic and geoservices. The workshop had two specific parallel sessions on future networking with 5G, and intelligent sensing and services in urban environment including traffic and mobility.

Dr. Matti Hämäläinen with Dr. Jani Kaarlejärvi presented an update on the China-Finland ICT Alliance progress and the plans for 2014. This update was elaborated in working sessions on two specific topics: 5G and sensing / traffic applications. Also, information on China-related Tekes activities in ICT and applications was provided, including preliminary information on the forthcoming MOST-Tekes call (opening in March and closing in the end of April 2014) and related cooperation with Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces. This call aims at industrial partners, and SMEs in particular, with the overall theme of cleantech and its applications. In the ICT Alliance context, air quality monitoring solutions and traffic solutions seem potential candidate areas. These themes also contribute to the Tekes coordinated Beautiful Beijing cooperation framework during 2014.

The Phase II Alliance projects form new thematic groups. The two closely related networking projects, Energy-Efficient Wireless Networks and Connectivity of Devices -Densification & Energy-Efficient Wireless Networks and Connectivity of Devices – Systems, were presented by Dr. Alexis Dowhuszko, Aalto University and by Prof. Mikko Valkama, Tampere University of Technology. The academic partners include Aalto University, Tampere University of Technology, University of Oulu, VTT, Shanghai Research Center for Wireless Communications (WICO), Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications (BUPT), Southeast University (SEU), University of Electronic Science and Technology (UESTC), Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST), University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), and Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT).

The two projects focusing of sensing and intelligent services with applications in traffic and urban mobility form another thematic project group. Everyday Sensing was presented by Dr. Mika Rautiainen, University of Oulu.

It includes University of Oulu, Aalto University, University of Helsinki, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Tsinghua University, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications (BUPT), and Huazhong University of Science and Technology as its academic partners. Sensing City Traffic was presented by Dr. Timo Nyberg, Aalto University. The academic partners include Aalto University and Chinese Academy of Sciences. These projects intensify research cooperation among each other and with related projects in Finland and China as described in the Research Forum Working group section below.

The project focusing on navigation systems cooperation, Finland’s Enhanced Navigation using COMPASS/Beidou Signals, was presented by Dr. Laura Ruotsalainen, Finnish Geodetic Institute (FGI). Finnish Geodetic Institute (FGI), GNSS Research Center (GRC) in Wuhan University, and Chinese Antarctic Center of Surveying and Mapping (CACSM) are the research partners. There is an interest both sides in China and Finland to extend this cooperation to include new research partners and companies (e.g. with Geostar who also joined the workshop).

Related to future activity planning, presentations were also given by invited experts: Dr. Sergey Andreev with Prof. Evgeny Kucheryavy, Tampere University of Technology, presented their research on Improved Connectivity and Service Experience in Heterogeneous 5G Deployments; and Future Networking cooperation (Beyond Internet) was represented by Dr. Arto Karila and Dr. Dmitrji Lagutin, who have been carrying on cooperation with Future Network Innovation Institute of China (FNII) based in Nanjing.

In the working session Prof. Jyrki Nummenmaa, University of Tampere, introduced their research activities in intelligent traffic (related to the City of Tampere’s Intelligent Traffic activities) and cooperation links in China.

An update on eServices and eBusiness research and the eBEREA network activities was presented by Prof. Jukka Heikkilä, University of Turku. Currently, active areas include research on developing and implementing digital services for “young elderly” in the BeWell research activity. It is now a part of DIGILE’s D2I research programme and has several company and research partners in Finland and is closely linked with international partners in China, Germany, Italy, Sweden and The Netherlands.

Dr. Risto Vilkko, Academy of Finland, presented the cooperation framework between the Academy of Finland and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) and the process for the ongoing preparation of a joint call on 5G networks. Dr. Mika Klemettinen, Tekes, described Tekes’ activities and future directions in the networking and Internet of Things areas that are thematically related to the ongoing and new initiatives in ICT Alliance. Companies in the field of future networks, everyday sensing and social media, and geoservices were presented by Dr. Philip Ginzboorg, Huawei, Mr. Kimmo Valtonen, M-Brain and Mr. Tony Liu, Geostar (WudaGeo).

In 2014, China-Finland cooperation develops even faster to a cross-industrial dimension that is closely linked with, for example, establishment of business ecosystems, establishment of research forums, utilisation of R&D&I opportunities under Horizon 2020, as well as planning of an international ICT Alliance workshop. The effort continues in the development of ICT Alliance as an open “platform” for international R&D&I cooperation. While there are several areas where Chinese partners, universities, research centers and companies, have indicated their concrete interest in cooperating with Finnish partners, financing international R&D&I cooperation still remains a challenge. This is particularly true when considering public funding for university research but similar challenges also appear when companies search for financing for cooperation in new areas.

In this situation it becomes even more important to be able to link complementary activities and resources as well as different modes of operation together (e.g. cooperation in research projects, education and business pilots). The project based work may be considered as the “backbone” of ICT Alliance and it is worthwhile to consider how next projects can be built on current cooperation and results – and how new partners already working with China or interested in joining may be brought into cooperation in the areas of joint interest. It would be an asset to receive ideas and input on such initiatives in which China-Finland R&D&I cooperation in ICT and digital services could have role. This would allow ICT Alliance, well in advance, to contact relevant Finnish and Chinese experts and institutions who may contribute to joint activities – and also benefit from participation. Also, this would allow ICT Alliance to synchronise ICT Alliance with other relevant Finland-China actions and activities.

China-Finland Workshop on 5G Networks in Shanghai

China-Finland Workshop on 5G Networks was organised by Shanghai Research Center for Wireless Communications (WICO), supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China and Academy of Finland, and in cooperation with China-Finland ICT Alliance. About 30 key Finnish and Chinese future network experts were invited to the workshop that was held in Shanghai on 10-12 March 2014. Keynote addresses were given by Prof. Yang Yang, Director, Shanghai Research Center for Wireless Communications (WICO), Mr. Zhaotian Zhang, Deputy Director General, Department of Information Sciences, National Natural Science Foundation of China and Dr. Risto Vilkko, Programme Manager, Academy of Finland.

The objectives of the workshop were to discuss current developments in future network research, identify joint research interests in the field of 5G and finalise the collaborative Finland-China research project agenda. Considering the long term track record in Finland on cellular network development starting from General System for Mobile Communications (GSM), and the urgent demand for advanced mobile technologies in China, it is beneficial and strategic important to carry on joint 5G research in areas such as system design; air interface and multi-antenna; new spectrum, millimetre wave air interface and backhaul; efficient hardware and platforms, multi-cell, and signal processing; as well as management and modelling.

From the Chinese side, technical presentations were given by Prof. Xiaohu Ge, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Prof. Jianhua Zhang, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Prof. Honglin Hu, Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Prof. Qinyu Zhang, Harbin Institute of Technology, Dr. Fusheng Zhe, ZTE Corporation, Prof. Hua Zhang, Southeast University, Prof. Pinyi Ren, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Prof. Shengjie Zhao, Tongji University, Prof. Zhisheng Niu, Tsinghua University, Prof. Gang Wu, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Prof. Wuyang Zhou, University of Science and Technology of China, and Prof. Lingyang Song, Peking University.

From the Finnish side, presentations were given by Prof. Evgeny Kucheryavy, Tampere University of Technology, Prof. Mikko Valkama Tampere University of Technology, Dr. Sergey Andreev, Tampere University of Technology, Prof. Sasu Tarkoma, University of Helsinki, Dr. Tao Chen, VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, Prof. Antti-Heikki Tölli, University of Oulu, Prof. Riku Jäntti, Aalto University, and Dr. Kari Pehkonen, Broadcom Communications Finland Ltd. On behalf of China-Finland ICT Alliance, Dr. Jani Kaarlejärvi talked about the 5G elements of Horizon 2020, and financial opportunities in setting up joint, large-scale Finland-China-EU projects in the field of 5G. To begin a joint 5G EU proposal planning raised a lot of interest, and one or two joint teams could be set up to begin the planning for Call 14.

After three days of actively elaborating of the content of the joint call for Chinese-Finnish scientific cooperation, National Natural Science Foundation of China and Academy of Finland signed the Memorandum of Understanding concerning joint call on 5G networks. According to the preliminary schedule, the joint call will be published and opened in June 2014, decisions will be made in October 2014 and the funding period would begin in early 2015.

China-focused EduTech Business Ecosystem Workshop

Education is a focal area in China-Finland cooperation and to better synchronise activities and boost the impact of cooperation, the ”Sino–Finnish Learning Factory” (SFLF) initiative has been prepared under the direction of the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture together with a team of experts from companies, research institutions and organisations. The initial areas suggested for the SFLF initiative include: learning research, teacher training and learning solutions, i.e. technology, services, and content ranging from kindergarten to primary, secondary and higher education and to vocational and professional education. When preparing the SFLF initiative, Digile as the Coordinator of China-Finland ICT Alliance has been invited to facilitate the cooperation of education technology and services companies, including related piloting and research. The preparation of EduTech business ecosystem started by Digile in 2013 together with those companies that were interested in education technologies and services area, under a theme “Education-as-a-Service”.

In addition to the development of the EduTech business ecosystem, education is also an active area in Digile’s Digital Services research programme and a candidate service area for the recently launched FORGE Service Laboratory. Collaboration is the best way to achieve successful global EduTech business, especially for Finnish players that can jointly better address the market needs by providing complementary and scalable offerings as many of the new innovative companies tend to be rather small. EduTech business ecosystem workshops were organised at Digile on 11 March 2014 and 1 April 2014. The ambition was to involve and activate such education and learning technology companies that have interest in international markets and China in particular. The goal of the EduTech business ecosystem is nothing less than jointly providing disruptive new products into the global market, starting with China and working together with leading Chinese partners.

As ecosystem programmes are about seeking market validation for joint business cases, Workshop I focused on going through company business needs and expectation, identifying potential collaborators and initial pilot ideas. Based on the results of Workshop I and discussions between prospective partners between the workshops, Workshop II targeted a collaborative programme framework and goal setting, creating a list of potential pilots with value proposition and customer and partners involved, as well as in the end agreeing on next steps to create a programme framework presentation to the Digile Board of Directors.

Workshop I companies cover several relevant target groups and potential pilots in China. Mr. Niko Lindholm, TribaLearning, together with Dr. Mika Seppälä, WEPS, and Mr. Antti Korhonen, Leia Media, are working on a business pilot involving learning analytics and ultra-low energy delivery platform (”e-paper” by Leia Media stemming from earlier China-Finland research cooperation). In China, interested partners include university education technology centers with pilot schools as well as educational publishers. Mr. Sotiris Makrygiannis, Eliademy (CBTech), described how their user population and channel would contribute to a pilot.

The second pilot was outlined by Mr. Ari Ketola, Context Learning Finland, Mr. Pentti Mero, Airport College, and Mr. Esa Tervo, Neoxen. It focuses on professional and corporate training, on transport and logistics in particular, targeting e.g. airport professional training. Mr. Mika Martikainen, Skilltize, described their offering in real-time online training and tutoring, with an initial focus on languages (English and other) and mathematics. Synergies were identified among these two pilots in planning and potential for a few additional pilots to be specified during the planning process. It has also become obvious that there is an interest among the partners to involve research centers in the EduTech cooperation model. A Research forum for education technologies and services focus area within ICT Alliance is now in active planning.

Focus area: Intelligent Sensing and Services for Traffic and Mobility in Urban Environment

In ICT Alliance, intelligent sensing, social media and data analysis are being studied in projects, “Everyday Sensing” and “Sensing City Traffic”, whose target application areas are traffic and urban mobility services. Similar China-Finland focused projects are under planning in the University of Tampere and Aalto University. Intelligent traffic and mobility solutions for the urban environment are a promising area for the cooperation based on complementary expertise, approaches and capabilities. The combination of rapidly developing sensing capabilities, ubiquitous wireless networks, crowdsourcing, social media (analysis), dynamic routing and related technologies provide opportunities for creating new and innovative solutions and new businesses.

These new solutions will also substantially help in addressing serious environmental challenges in cities. Better flow of traffic and improved understanding of people’s daily travel chains makes it possible to develop more energy efficient transportation solutions. To better leverage the synergies among these projects, to improve sharing and co-developing methods and tools, to enable sharing of data, results and experiences from technology and business pilots, ICT Alliance has been preparing to launch a “Research Forum on Intelligent Sensing and Services in Urban Environment for Traffic and Mobility” (ISSUE-TM) during spring 2014. The experiences from this first ICT Alliance Research Forum will be analysed and utilised when considering setting up next Research Forums in other areas of joint interest, such as education technology and services, elderly services and smart home, and geoservices.

Focus area: Elderly Services and Smart Home

In the ICT Alliance context, there has been an interest among a group of universities and companies to develop cooperation that would more actively link the areas of elderly services, personal health and wellbeing and smart home together. A “Home-as-a-Service Platform” concept has been introduced by Digile as a potential framework to bring together related activities in these complimentary areas. For example, a “Home based personal services for elderly” concept is being developed by Active Life Village and its partners in close cooperation with cities, such as the City of Espoo.

Elderly services and smart home solutions will be discussed in Beijing in early May 2014 in an international cooperation meeting hosted by the Beijing Academy of Science and Technology (BJAST), a key ICT Alliance partner in this area, involving also Fraunhofer IAO and representatives from Taiwan and Korea. Dr. Matti Hämäläinen, as the ICT Alliance representative, will also join the “3rd China International Senior Services Expo” (CISSE 2014) that is the main event in this field. This trip will also include visits to Zhongguancun Z-Park and Life Science Park for extending cooperation in these areas (these events coincide with the planned visit of Minister for Social Affairs and Health, Paula Risikko, in Beijing at the same time).

Hanasaari Forum on Nordic Education, Exporting Education Knowhow and China Cooperation

Hanasaari, the Swedish-Finnish Culture Centre, organised a Nordic forum on education and learning exporting on 31 March that gathered experts from Finland and Sweden to boost joint actions. Key discussion topics focused on ways how to increase education internationalisation, how to attract more international students to Nordic countries and how to take advantage of Nordic competitiveness in education and the Nordic education brand. The keynote addresses were given by Dr. Anders Ahlstrand, Senior Policy Advisor, Swedish Council for Higher Education and Dr. Päivi Lipponen, Member of Finnish Parliament and Chairperson of the Government’s Committee for Education Exports.

China-Finland R&D&I cooperation for scaling education technology and services business was presented by Dr. Matti Hämäläinen, Coordinator of China-Finland ICT Alliance, Digile. He illustrated the need of digital learning solutions and the opportunities in combining key strengths in Finland and in China for co-creating breakthroughs in the area. As a concrete example, he described EduTech business ecosystem that is currently being set up by Digile in the context of the Sino-Finnish Learning Factory (SFLF) initiative of the Ministry of Education and Culture. EduTech Ecosystem focuses on business pilots in China as well as co-creating scalable solutions to larger market areas. The target market areas cover the whole spectrum ranging from kindergarten to university and professional/enterprise education.

Focus area: Environmental Monitoring (Air Quality)

Together with a leading Chinese geoservice company Geostar (Wuda-Geo) and a number of Finnish air quality monitoring and modelling companies, ICT Alliance initiated in March 2014 the planning of a China-Finland proposal for an “Air Quality Monitoring Platform”. There is already an established map based monitoring platform developed by Geostar to be used as a basis solution in China. For synchronising cross-sectoral China-Finland cooperation, a meeting on business and R&D opportunities for monitoring and improving outdoor and indoor air quality in China was hosted by Cleen, involving VTT, Rym, Digile/China-Finland ICT Alliance, and others.

Pure Finland 2014 – High-level Events in Beijing in Autumn 2014

Pure Finland is the main activity of the Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the whole Team Finland in China in 2014, and ICT Alliance is a member of the planning working group. In addition, ICT Alliance will organise a China-Finland business and technology cooperation related event as a part of the autumn’s activities. Pure Finland is a project with a long-term view to strengthen the country brand of Finland, including Finnish businesses in China and particularly in Beijing. The aim to make an impact among key Chinese government, business, education and science, culture, media and tourism organisations, as well as consumers with a high purchasing power, through a series of events in Beijing in autumn 2014. Expected benefits are, such as, visibility in tens of Chinese major newspapers, magazines and TV with millions of readers or audience; interaction with tens of thousands of young Chinese through the Chinese social media; direct contact with key Chinese partners, interest groups and/or customers and thus strengthened relations; and extended cooperation network with other Finnish organisations for future projects in China. According to the current schedule, the events in Beijing will focus on:

“Coolest brands from Finland”, September;
“Destination Finland”, 23-25 October;
“Innovation Finland”, 25-27 November; and
“Creative Finland”, December.

Jani Kaarlejärvi Appointed an Advisory Board Member in the European Commission funded CHOICE project on EU-China cooperation on ICT R&D&I

European and Chinese organisations gathered in Chengdu on January 10, 2014 to officially launch the CHOICE project, funded by the European Commission DG CONNECT. The project aims to provide continuity and progress in supporting and strengthening Europe-China Collaboration on ICT research, offering timely input on common ICT R&D priorities and future cooperation opportunities. It builds on and goes beyond the results of previous project, the OpenChina-ICT project in particular. The CHOICE consortium is a balance of Chinese and European partners, incl. OpenChina-ICT project partners (SIGMA and CATR), as well as China ACCESS4EU (SPI, TORCH, EUPIC) and DRAGON-STAR (SPI) partners, which guarantees that all the valuable outputs of previous projects will be fully exploited and that synergies with relevant projects will be developed.

Through its objectives, the CHOICE project creates a bridge towards Horizon 2020 to shift away from technology-driven towards innovation-driven ICT R&D based on societal and consumer needs:

• Identify obstacles to reciprocity and encouraging a more balanced ICT R&D&I relationship with China based on reciprocity, supporting European nationals, companies and organisations willing to access Chinese research programmes;

• Highlight and showcase European and Chinese excellence in ICT R&D; and

• Strengthen EU-China industrial ICT R&D cooperation, also with the view of preparing the ground for new upcoming rules governing EU-China ICT R&D cooperation under Horizon 2020.

Jani Kaarlejärvi was appointed an Advisory Board Member in the CHOICE project. The advisory board members help the project to liaise with other European and bilateral projects ensuring continuous communication between CHOICE and other key initiatives. The main role of its members is to contribute to the updating and fine tuning of the “Roadmap towards enhanced EU-China ICT R&D cooperation”, identifying and detailing cooperation priorities between the EU and China in the ICT field and providing recommendations. CHOICE Advisory Board meetings take place in conjunction with project events and workshops and CHOICE Advisory Board members meet in person at least twice over the duration of the project, while additional virtual meetings will be organised on an ad hoc basis.

Next Activities and Actions

China-Finland ICT Alliance new initiative meetings in Shanghai, Beijing and Wuhan, 7-17 April
Cooperation meetings on Elderly Care Services and “Smart Home for elderly”, 3-9 May, Beijing
China-Finland ICT Alliance new initiative meetings in Shanghai and Beijing, June
ICT Alliance Research Forum on Intelligent Sensing and Services in Urban Environment for Traffic and Mobility (ISSUE-TM) during the 10th ITS European Congress, 16-19 June, Helsinki
International Conference on Management Science and Engineering (21th) (ICMSE2014) in cooperation with eBEREA network, 17-18 August, Helsinki
Finnish-Chinese Workshop on Analysis of Social Media, University of Tampere, 6-13 August, Tampere
Pure Finland, “Coolest brands from Finland”, September, Beijing
Shanghai Design Week, 13.-17.10.2014, Shanghai
Radical Design Week, 16.-25.10.2014, Shanghai
Pure Finland, “Destination Finland”, 23-25 October, Beijing
Pure Finland, “Innovation Finland”, 25-27 November, Beijing
Pure Finland, “Creative Finland”, December, Beijing

More Information on China-Finland ICT Alliance and Digile

For more information, please visit the China-Finland ICT Alliance website www.ictalliance.org, Digile website www.digile.fi and http://www.digile.fi/DIGILEintro or contact Dr. Matti Hämäläinen and Dr. Jani Kaarlejärvi (firstname.lastname@digile.fi).

Boosting China Cooperation

Nov 08 2013

China-Finland ICT Alliance October 2013 Update

China-Finland ICT Alliance October 2013 Update 402.22 KB

Click to download China -Finland ICT Alliance October 2013 Update.pdf

Finland as “Country of Honour for 2013” in Pujiang Innovation Forum in Shanghai

Finland was nominated by the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (MOST) as the “Country of Honour for 2013” for Pujiang Innovation Forum 26-27 October 2013 in Shanghai. Pujiang Innovation Forum has been established in 2008 to highlight best practices in international innovation cooperation and to exchange views, knowledge and visions between industrial, governmental and academic partners. Pujiang Innovation Forum is one of the most important events in this field in China. The grand theme of this year’s forum was “Innovation-Driven Development and the Role of Enterprises”. The forum was a very good fit for China-Finland ICT Alliance as it is run by MOST (that established ICT Alliance in 2009 together with the Ministry of Employment and the Economy of Finland) and it involves long-term key partners in Shanghai, the City of Shanghai, Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park, and Tongji University as its main organisers. Prior and after to Pujiang Innovation Forum there were meetings and workshops organised by ICT Alliance in Beijing and Shanghai as described below. ICT Alliance was a member in the preparation team of the forum programme from the Finnish side among other Team Finland actors, as well as a member of Finland’s official Pujiang business delegation.

In his opening speech, Mr. Jan Vapaavuori, Minister of the Economy of Finlandhighlighted the current R&D&I efforts of the China-Finland ICT Alliance as an active joint platform in international innovation cooperation. The forum also had a number of other guest speakers and distinguished panellists, for example, Mr. Wan Gang, Minister of Science and Technology of China, Mr. Yang Xiong, Mayor of the City of Shanghai, Mr. Peter Vesterbacka, Chief Marketing Officer & Mighty Eagle, Rovio, Mr. Antti Pirinen, Vice President, Kone, and Mr. Pekka Soini, Director General, TEKES.

Key topics that were discussed in the forum:

joint R&D projects are a concrete way to support and encourage international cooperation;
need for new models in value creation;
how to more effectively allocate investments into knowledge and create new financing models; and
investments into learning and capacity building are essential for boosting industrial sectors.

The close cooperation between the City of Shanghai and City of Espoo and Chinese and Finnish high-tech innovation actors was highlighted by signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Espoo City & China-Finland Golden Bridge Innovation Center and Shanghai Zhang Jiang High-Tech Park, by Ms.Tuula Antola, Director of Economic and Business Development of the Espoo City, and Mr. Lei Ding, Director of Zhang Jiang High Tech Park Administrative Committee.

The recent launch of the new China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone and the Bund Financial Innovation Pilot Zone are signals of the open approach and interest in experimenting with new and innovative cooperation models. They highlight China’s position and aim at becoming key global node for trade, logistics and financial services. These developments are highly relevant to the ICT Alliance and they match Finland’s vision: working together with key international partners to establish an “Enabling hub for global digital business and innovation – where East meets West and South”. In the increasingly digital world Finland aims at providing open, trusted, transparent and reliable base for data and services. Combining highly available digital services and communication infrastructures with trusted and secure management of large scale transactional and personal data and identities would provide businesses and public actors a unique international hub for big data and cloud based services. And, fast growing digital business can also be fun, even in Finland, as illustrated by the well-known global games companies Rovio (Angry Birds), attending Pujiang Innovation Forum, and Supercell.

Z-Park Enterprise Forum with ICT Alliance: Faster from R&D&I to Business

Zhongguancun Science Park is one of the most intensive R&D&I foundations in China. To boost cooperation with Finnish companies, it invited 30 most innovative companies from its community to join the forum on Finland-China business and R&D&I cooperation on 30 October 2013 in Beijing. The key objective was to identify and discuss partnership between Finnish companies and Zhongguancun Science Park in the field of ICT and digital solutions and applications. The forum was chaired by Mr. Zeng Xiaotao, Managing Director, International Operations, Administrative Committee of Zhongguancun Science Park, and hosted by Mr. Yang Nan, Vice General Manager, Beijing Zhongguancun Software Park Development Co., Ltd. Mr. Jani Kaarlejärvi and Mr. Matti Hämäläinen presented current and future business activities and joint business initiatives of DIGILE and China-Finland ICT Alliance with the special focus on how joint R&D&I projects create business value for SMEs and which way it is possible to fasten processes from R&D to market entry for new solutions, products and services.

Following joint R&D&I interest areas were identified:

e-banking and e-commerce;
gaming;
data analytics;
5G technology;
cloud security ; and
future media technologies and platforms.

Zhongguancun became the first high-tech park in China in 1988 when the State Council approved the establishment of the Beijing New Technology Industrial Development Trial Zone (predecessor of the Zhongguancun Science and Technology Park). During the past two decades, Zhongguancun has gathered nearly 20,000 high and new-tech enterprises, including such as Lenovo and Baidu. Zhongguancun enterprises have formulated 86 important international standards like TD-SCDMA, McWill and IGRS, and about 800 national, local and industrial standards. Its technology transaction values exceed a third of the country’s total, including 80 percent of project products and services exported outside Beijing. In 2010, the gross income of enterprises in Zhongguancun achieved 1.59 trillion yuan, an increase of 22.6 percent, taking up about one seventh of all high and new-tech zones in China and contributing 23.5 percent to Beijing’s economic growth. Zhongguancun is home to 10 parks, namely, Haidian, Fengtai, Changping, Electronics City, Yizhuang, Desheng, Yonghe, Shijingshan and Tongzhou Parks as well as the Daxing Biomedicine Industrial Base. Zhongguancun’s venture capital cases and investment amount every year account for about a third of the country’s total. For example, Zhongguancun Software Park opened up an office in Otaniemi, Espoo, in 2012. Zhongguancun Software Park Development Co, Ltd is specialised in high tech park development and its establishment was granted by Beijing Municipal Government. Its three shareholder companies are Beijing Technology Park Construction Group, Beijing Capital Steel, and Beijing Haidian Technology Park. Zhongguncun Software Park Development Co, Ltd was founded on 7 August 2000 with initial capital of 500 million RMB ($62.5 million USD).

Companies that participated in the Enterprise Forum included, for example:

Qihoo 360 Technology Co Ltd (NYSE: QIHU) is a leading Chinese supplier of Internet products and services and mobile safety;
iSoftStone (NYSE: ISS) is a leading China-based IT services provider, serving both Greater China and Global clients.
UFIDA Software Co Ltd is the largest local management software provider in China and the Asia-Pacific region;
Beyondsoft Corporation offers end-to-end development and testing cloud computing solution and in 2013 was awarded “TOP 50 Service Outsourcing Players in China”;
Senscape Technologies is China’s first mobile augmented reality platform dedicated to developing high-tech company, augmented reality technology is the intelligence and wisdom of the city’s major tourist supporting technology;
Beijing GEO Technologies develops big data technologies to apply in the advertising industry, and its patent DataQuateTM technology platform processes 4TB real time internet audience profile data/day, coming from operator broadband and internet, and has managed advertising resources for blue chip clients including Citi-Bank, Pepsi, Peugeot, Johnson and Johnson, Suning.com etc.;
Anplat Co., Ltd. Is an industry-focused BI (Business Intelligence) standardized software solutions company;
Kingsoft Corporation Limited, as one of best-known software companies, is a leading software developer and Internet service provider in China, and on October 9th, 2007, Kingsoft was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange;
ChinaCache (NASDAQ: CCIH) is one of the world’s leading providers of content delivery network and cloud services; and
Beijing Venus Information Security Technology Co., Ltd, listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, has a perfect professional security product line. In the government and the army it has 80% market share of the world’s five hundred 60% of Chinese enterprises to provide safe products and services; in the financial sector, it has on policy banks, state-owned commercial banks, national joint-stock commercial banks to achieve 90% coverage. In the field of telecommunications, it offer the three operators, China Mobile, China Telecom, China Unicom, security products, security services and solutions.

Workshop on Creating New Solutions for Boosting Innovation and Entrepreneurship – Preparing China-Finland R&D&I Initiatives for Global Impact

DIGILE/China-Finland ICT Alliance, Sino-Finnish Centre and Tongji University in cooperation with eBEREA network partners organised a workshop on Creating New Solutions for Boosting Innovation and Entrepreneurship on 28 October 2013 in Shanghai – right after the Pujiang Innovation Forum. The main objective of this invitational brainstorming workshop was to discuss and prepare such new China-Finland initiatives in digital services and business that have potential for global impact. In additional to digital industries, e-commerce and Internet financing the potential of digital services and “big data” in environment, energy and urban environment were also on the agenda. These areas were represented byCLEEN (Finnish Strategic Centre for Science, Technology and Innovation in Energy and the Environment) and RYM (Finnish Strategic Centre for Science, Technology and Innovation in Built Environment Innovations) and INSIGMA from the Chinese side.

The workshop focused on some of the key themes of Pujiang Innovation Forum looking to identify concrete topics and models for industry, academia and public sector cooperation. “Innovation needs Capital” was one of the main themes of the forum, as well as the need to boost SMEs and start-ups and organise new kinds of industry clusters and networks with established players. In China-Finland cooperation the aim is to build the “2-way gateway” and also link other partners and markets in the Nordics, Baltics, the European Union as well as other regions, including the emerging economies.

Invited Chinese participants represented rapidly growing industrial sectors and especially those that are focal in China-Finland/EU R&D&I cooperation in the field of e-business and services, with Big Data as one common denominator:

e-service and e-payment;
e-logistics and supply chain finance;
P2P lending and micro financing research;
e-payment risk management;
text mining and sentiment analysis;
IT innovation and industry chain applications; and
solutions for clean technologies and smart buildings.

Chinese side participants include, among other, Prof. Zhangxi Lin (co-chair), Director, Sichuan Key Lab of Financial Intelligence and Financial Engineering, SWUFE and TTU, Mr. Li Defeng, Director, Research Division of Database, Huawei, Ms. Cao Heng, Director, IBM Shanghai Research Institute, Mr. Xie Shan, VP, Strategic Planning, Senior Researcher, Allinpay, Mr. Li Lele, CTO, Smart Logistics, Ms. Wang Xia, President, NoyaXe Technologies, Mr. Zheng Xianrong, Vice Director, Beijing Research Institute, INSIGMA, Prof. Xiaofeng Ma, Tongji University, Prof. Qiang Ye,

Associate Dean, Harbin Institute of Technology, Mr. Xiaolin Zheng, Deputy Director, eService Research Center, Zhejiang University.

Finnish side participants include, Mrs. Merja Hiltunen, Director (Steering and networks), TEKES, Mrs. Ulla Hiekkanen–Mäkelä, Executive Director (Marketing and communications) TEKES, Mr. Teemu Varonen, Programme Director, Senior Adviser (Finland–China collaboration in ICT), TEKES, Mr. Jarmo E. Heinonen, Consul (Science and Technology), Consulate General of Finland, Shanghai, Head of Tekes Shanghai, Ms. Karoliina Peippo, Communications Manager, CLEEN (Finnish Strategic Centre for Science, Technology and Innovation in Energy and the environment); and Mr. Vesa Ijäs, Head of Account Management, Lahti Development Company LADEC Ltd. (Vice Board Member & Representative of RYM (Finnish Strategic Centre for Science, Technology and Innovation in Built environment innovations). The Finland side organisers were represented by Mr. Matti Hämäläinen (co-chair), Director (China cooperation), DIGILE and Professor at Aalto, Mr. Jani Kaarlejärvi, Director (International Coordination), DIGILE, and Matti M. Hämäläinen, Director (Operations), Sino-Finnish Centre.

Workshop on Elderly Care Services Research in Beijing

ICT Alliance joined a workshop on International Research Center for Service Innovation for Elderly People (IRCSI) at Beijing Academy of Science and Technology (BJAST) in Beijing on 23 October 2013. The workshop involved participants from BJAST, Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering (Fraunhofer IAO), Aalto University, DIGILE and Active Life Village Ltd. It was organised to review progress in 2013 and plan joint activities for spring 2014,with milestones based on a pilot in Yangfangdian Community and key elderly care industry events in China during the planning period. IRCSIwasestablished in December 2012 as a China-German-Finnish cooperation platform by Beijing Research Center of Urban System Engineering (BRCUSE) of BJAST, and by Fraunhofer IAO with Aalto University as key University partner.

DIGILE and Active Life Village were present in the founding event and in 2013 the cooperation was formalised by the MoU signed during Ms. Paula Risikko’s, Minister of Social Affairs and Health, visit to Beijing on 25 September 2013. Services in the ageing society is a focus area in China-Finland R&D&I cooperation and BJAST and IRCSI are important entities in that work. During 2013 cooperation has been active between the Finnish, Chinese and German partners based on bilateral projects and several visits have taken place to China and Finland. While this cooperation continues in 2014 also multilateral research projects are considered including forthcoming China-EU calls under Horizon 2020. Experiences gained from the pilots in Finland and China and relationships established provide a basis for business-oriented research and development. With the support of BJAST President Mr. Ding and other key people of BJAST, cooperation has also opened up opportunities to meet with local and municipal decision-makers in Beijing to help pursue the systemic changes in the way elderly care is provided. In addition to technology, the work involves studying policymaking, financing, regulatory issues as well as concrete provision of training in the emerging field of digitally supported elderly services and assisted living.

Workshop on Espoo-Shanghai cooperation, Sino-Finnish Centre (Aalto-Tongji Design Factory)

The workshop on 25 October was organised to plan actions based on the agreement signed during the visit of Mr. Yang Xiong, Mayor of the City of Shanghai, in Espoo in August 2013 and the MoU to be signed at Pujiang Innovation Forum between the City of Espoo and Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park on 27 October 2013. It was agreed in the workshop that the goals of this cooperation need to be ambitious as there is commitment from both sides (Finland and China) and a special Sister City relationship. Espoo and Shanghai together can represent key “Innovation Hubs” in Finland and China. In the next cooperation phase, the focus will be on areas where Finland and China can combine their complementary capabilities to address some of the priorities in China for creating globally relevant models and solutions and in particular to focus on topics where the City of Shanghai and the City of Espoo can make a different not only regionally but internationally. The areas have already been identified and the meeting focused on prioritising, action planning and agreeing on how various actors can best work together in the ”Team Finland” spirit.

The areas include education and training, and also vocational education and training. In addition to primary, secondary and higher education, there is potential for training business in the cooperation and also this is needed as we together move in new areas where education and training policy guidelines and regulations need to be developed. An illustrative example is rapidly booming “industry” of elderly services which is almost a “greenfield situation” in China and solutions can only be developed by working closely together. Other emerging priority areas include environment, energy, citizen centric urban planning and public services, among others. Espoo (and the Helsinki metropolitan region in general) and Shanghai are also actively developing tourism and have very complementary assets and approaches, and the opportunities for both areas are unique.

ICT Alliance & National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) Meeting in Beijing

ICT Alliance had a meeting on 5G cooperation with National Natural Science Foundation of China on 30 October in Beijing, and the initiative received a positive response from NSFC. Key experts from the NSFC side were Mr. Zhaotian Zang, Deputy Director, Information Science, Ms. YingJie Fan, Deputy Director of International Cooperation and Ms. Xiong Xiaoyun, Deputy Director of Electronics and Information Systems. Prof. Xiaohu Ge, Department of Electronics and Information Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST) joined as an expert representing substance expertise and research outline that has been drafted together with WiCO and the Finnish key research partners: University of Oulu, Aalto University, Tampere University of Technology, VTT, and HUST on behalf of the Chinese network research partners of the China-Finland ICT Alliance. All key Finnish partners are involved. The Finnish side was represented by Mr. Matti Hämäläinen and Mr. Jani Kaarlejärvi as well as Mr. Mika Tirronen, Counsellor for Science and Education, Embassy of Finland in Beijing, who represents in China the Ministry of Education and Culture and the Academy of Finland. In the meeting it was agreed that the topic of advanced 5G research will be taken on the agenda when new international activities are planned between China and Finland and the EU. This will involve preparatory joint China-Finland-EU workshop in Q1/2014 in Beijing with the support of NSFC, and initiating a concrete dialogue on ICT and advanced networking to be included in forthcoming joint call. Possibilities for multilateral programmes were also discussed.

More Information on China-Finland ICT Alliance and DIGILE

For more information, please visit the China-Finland ICT Alliance website www.ictalliance.org, DIGILE website www.digile.fi or contact Mr. Matti Hämäläinen and Mr. Jani Kaarlejärvi (firstname.lastname(at)digile.fi).

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